Shanghai Fabric Market Tour #3

Hi! Welcome to you Fabric Loving Friends! Haberdashery Heaven Seekers! Here's my latest tour of Shanghai's Fabric Market, and today we'll go behind the Embellishment Market (as I've seen it called) of 388 Renmin Lu! My previous tours are here and here... and have lots of photos! Often it's hard to find exactly what you're after in Shanghai when searching online, so my fabric tours hope to cover a lot of what *I'm* searching for but what you're searching for too... so let me know if you're in town or coming to town, and I'll be totally happy to help you out!

As I said earlier this week, I was poking around the Renmin Lu Haberdashery market as my son was keen on finding materials to make a fishing rod. We rode our bikes through the old town, and came south via Sichuan Lu to Renmin Lu, but instead of going around the front of the building, we parked around back on Xinyong'an Lu. I found my interfacing and some more zippers inside and then we walked around that street outside where it was ROPE CITY and lingerie-making central...

Now I'm not making bras or swimsuits right now, but at least I know where to go! I had to take a lot of photos in this shop, because how gorgeous is that colour of the cabinets? There's a lot more little shops along Xinyong'an Road, but just not as bright at cheery. Do you see stuff you'd like? So many tools and useful little things!

Often things aren't so beautifully presented, it is China after all, so there's a LOT of stuff, and usually you can just see it all out on the street. I love it, even thought it's so hodge podge, there's certainly no place like it!

More lingerie stuff for you!

Most of these little shops behind the bigger building just have different stock, lacey and fringe things galore, and because there's a bit more space for looking around you can see a lot more too. Inside the Haberdashery Market, as I've mentioned before, is not for the faint hearted, I could hardly fit the small pram down some of the aisles (there's 2 floors of chaos and tiny stalls). But, out back of the building on Xinyong'an Lu it's a lot quieter.

We strolled up and down and there were people selling street food, lots of people standing around a road being dug up and we stopped off at the rope shop (in the first photos above) and I bought the largest ball of rope for 40RMB/$AUD 8.33/$UD 6.44/UK 4.10 ... and I have made so many little rope bowls, I still have at least half of it left. My besties will hopefully get theirs in the mail soon!

Here's the back of the big Embellishment Market:

And to finish, here's a little pushchair near a zipper shop... I've seen them around town here and there, but hadn't got a photo of one... it's SO cute! Of course all the modern ones are plastic and are now scooters or little bikes, but these vintage-esque ones are so darling. Lots of grandparents mind the children in China, and I often see little kids getting wheeled around town as the oldies go on their shopping runs or head to the park. Of course there's the usual prams and buggies too, but I love a lot of these unique useful objects!

So again, please email or leave a comment if you're stuck searching for sewing things in Shanghai! This week I helped a local cruise ship team find sparkly costume material - or I hope I did! So I've turned into a real Western local!

Here's an address I found in English:

Weiwei Textile, 42 Xinyong'an Rd, Huangpu, Shanghai, China

But the street is directly behind this building... The Embellishment Market:

388 Renmin Lu,
near Sichuan Nan Lu
人民路388号,
近四川南路